Monday, July 6, 2009

ZOMBIE WALK 2009! *or* The Closest I've Been To A Civil Rights Rally. Issue #109

Last week I had mentioned I would be participating in the 2009 ZOMIBIE WALK after Kirby Krackle was invited to play due to the closing song on our debut album entitled, "Zombie Apocalypse"; a social commentary on what it would be like after the undead fallout and delivered via ukulele.

Makes sense right?

With Jim busy with out of town guests, Mandi accompanied me as my infected assistant down to Fremont and for what turned out to be one of the more surreal experiences of my yet to be played out life....


In the weeks prior to the event I was told that the organizers (Fremont Outdoor Cinema) had expected about 2500 for the event and that they were hoping to to break the Guinness record for biggest Zombie Walk, AND largest "Thriller Dance" which came about as a tribute to the now late Michael Jackson. When M and I showed up the line was a couple hundred people long and an hour later after sound check we walked by the line again to see it was now at least over a thousand.


Having some time to kill before we wanted to see the first leg of the walk (about 5 total), we set up at a local outdoor seating restaurant and chuckled at the "Zombie Plate" now listed on the daily menu. It was getting to be obvious everyone was getting in on the fun and a great mood was in the air. As it got closer to walk time (7:30-ish) you could see zombies arriving en masse and seemed to be from all walks of life. There were families of zombies, dwarf zombies (yes that's the PC term so lay off), zombies in wheel chairs, almost nude zombies and the below pictured "Ronald McDonald" zombie. Disturbing and a destroyer of my childhood...thank you, sir.


As with any socially conscious movement, there were the zombie organizers. Standing on raised up tables and preaching to a sea of what was seemingly now thousands of undead infected, the chants of "What do We Want?!" were followed with the perfect rouse of "BRAINS!!!". My favorite chant of the night? The unifying battle cry of, "Zombies Are People Too!"...


Once the 1st leg of the walk started, there is really nothing I can tell you that you can't determined from the video below. I almost wish I didn't know about the walk so I could be one of the hundreds of Fremont citizens that stood wide-eyed with bewildered smiles maybe partially wondering if running would be the better action of choice instead of the omnipresent look of folks taking cell-phone pics. The most priceless thing I saw was hundreds of zombies walking by the "Nectar" club which has a huge iron fence and all lunge towards it with arms sticking through grasping at the patrons inside. From the other perspective it would seem almost too real. So cool!



After the walk the massive horde (reported to be now 4500+) shuffled their way back to HQ to try to break the THRILLER dance record. I'm not sure if it's been reported if they did yet, but I don't know how they couldn't with the sea of inhumanity in the picture below. You be the judge, and I hope it turns out they did.


After doing the dance 3 times (too much) it was my turn to play. I was originally told I had 4 songs to play but as they were way behind schedule I was told the set had been cut back to two. I chose "Naked Wii" and the before mentioned "Zombie Apocalype", which was why we were invited in the first place. I had fun, but barely had a chance to get the crowd primed as I was competing with the massive crowd noise and gathering of folks getting ready to watch SHAUN OF THE DEAD after my performance. I was pretty burnt by that point and didn't stay for the movie, but it was a great time, appreciated the professionalism of the organizers and I think everyone had an awesome night playing rotting make-believe.

Also, make sure you notice the love from Super-fan Irene. You can't buy that kinda loyalty (I've tried) and she made my night just with that. :)


In other KK news, we launched the email list only summer-single exclusive song last Tuesday and were overwhelmed with the response, online coverage and love from COMIC BOOK RESOURCES (the comic industry CNN). They did a fantastic piece on us and you can read it here!
That article, combined with the hundreds of email list members we had join who wanted to get the free song and the excitement that went along with it was all that we could ask for and more. I will say however that I need to figure out some kind of automated entry system for entering the addresses because the amount of hours I spent doing it makes no sense. Didn't think ahead on that one...

The other big news, at least to me, is the fact that I finally stepped up and got an iphone. Being an Apple everything guy except for the iphone had left me a this productivity limbo in some ways that I never escaped while always being jealous of what could be. "Jesus phone" it's not, but really is great when it comes to all the web 2.0 promo/communication I do with fans of KK and my solo stuff and I'm looking forward how the new video aspect of it can be integrated into what I already do. Instant filming and then uploading on Twitter/facebook? Unbelievable. Ok, I'm done... *snort, snort* (pushes up glasses) *untucks shirt from boxers* (Urkle Dance)....

"Did I do that?",

KS

2 comments:

Elwood said...

That Ronald McDonald Zombie is the Bee's Knees.

It's good to know that eating his own product for so many years has preserved him well.

Unknown said...

My sister was there with her new baby. Not that you would have picked them out of the Zombie masses, but they were there, showing their Zombie Pride. I'll have to ask her if she remembers the musical entertainment...then I'll pause dramatically and say "Do you remember Laymans Terms?" LOL!